On Olympic sports.

U.S. skaters don't rate, and that's bad

Poor performance may affect TV deals

March 26, 2007|By Philip Hersh.

TOKYO — The poor U.S. performance at the world championships that ended Saturday could not have come at a worse time for the U.S. Figure Skating Association and the International Skating Union as they try to negotiate new TV contacts with U.S. networks.

The USFSA contract with ABC, worth $12 million annually, expires this spring. The ISU contract with ESPN, a $5 million-per-year-deal, ends after next season.

At this point, there isn't much talent for U.S. skating to sell to TV, even as U.S. interest in skating could grow with the 2009 world championships scheduled for Los Angeles and the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

The U.S. team limps home from Tokyo with just one bronze medal, its lowest total since 1994. Its women won no medals for the first time since 1994 and only the third time since 1970.

Of the U.S. skaters who competed in Tokyo, the only legitimate 2010 medal contenders are Kimmie Meissner, Evan Lysacek and dancers Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto. Only the dancers would be favored to win a medal, and none seems a potential gold medalist.

The next U.S. generation, headlined by 13-year-old sensations Caroline Zhang and Mirai Nagasu, who finished 1-2 at this year's junior worlds, could be factors at the next level in time for the 2009 senior worlds. Coincidentally, both are from the L.A. area, which could make a compelling story if ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta stops acting like the kid who threatens to take his ball and go home.

Frustrated by growing U.S. TV disinterest in figure skating, Cinquanta warned last week at a news conference the 2009 worlds had been awarded to Los Angeles only on a provisional basis. No question had prompted his brazen attempt to bully U.S. television to step up to the plate.

He seemingly backed off that stance enough Saturday that the USFSA was able to say the ISU has reaffirmed the 2009 worlds' being in Los Angeles, although the ISU statement on the issue never said point-blank no change was possible.

"The allotment of the championships to be held in Los Angeles demonstrates the acknowledgement by the ISU of the great contribution by the U.S. skaters and movement to the development of the sport of figure skating," the ISU said.

Cinquanta described himself as "furious" about figure skating's uncertain TV future in both the U.S. and Canada. The Canadian TV contracts for both domestic and ISU events are up after this season.

U.S. television interests have been equally frustrated by Cinquanta's intransigence on matters big and small.

The ISU gave the back of its hand to a USFSA suggestion about seeding the skating order in the final group of competitors, so the leading skater after the short program would not go first in the free skate and potentially take all the suspense out of the outcome. At ABC's request, such a change was made at the U.S. championships.

And the ISU treated ESPN so poorly during the first year (2005) of its four-year deal, the network considered using what it felt were breaches of the contract by the ISU as grounds to end the deal.

The ISU likely will have to look outside North America for its major TV revenues, as it has done for its sponsors. Six of the 10 figure skating sponsors are Japanese companies, three French and just one American.

There are a number of reasons for the decline in U.S. ratings for figure skating, including the fragmentation of the TV market, ESPN's decision to fob off its telecasts as counter-programming to football, a lack of network promotion and the absence of attention-grabbing stars such as Michelle Kwan.

The sport's new judging and scoring system also is a factor. It has achieved much of its aim to make skating less subjective and less open to the backroom deals that led to the pairs judging scandal at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. But it remains indecipherable to fans.

"I don't understand it," U.S. champion Lysacek said.

Audiences used to thinking of perfection as the old 6.0 score now are faced with wading through more numbers than a tax accountant on April 14.

"They knew if they heard 5.8 or 5.9, that was good," Lysacek said. "And if they heard 5.1 for a performance they liked, they could boo the marks. But it has turned into a technical, nit-picking thing."

While Cinquanta and his cohorts have focused all their attention on judging, they have failed to address the bigger issue of talent development worldwide.

Traditional powers Russia and Canada are weak; the Russians won no world medal for the first time since 1960.

Chinese talent has filled the breach in pairs skating, once entirely Russia's domain, but there apparently are no Chinese teams ready to replace the three who have won recent world medals. Even Japan, the sport's new dynasty, expects a few lean years after the 2010 Olympics, until the young children motivated by the country's recent exploits reach the senior level.